Landmark St Andrews Agreement - 20th Anniversary Conference

Landmark St Andrews Agreement - 20th Anniversary Conference Twenty years after the signing of the 2006 St Andrews Agreement, which detailed the terms for a return to a power-sharing government in Northern Ireland, the University of St Andrews welcomed policy-makers, government officials, students, and the broader public to attend the Twentieth Anniversary Conference on 7-8 October.  The conference was hosted in collaboration with University College Dublin (UCD), Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), the British-Irish Chamber of Commerce, and the Scottish Council on Global Affairs.  Describing the significance of the event in a comment to The Saint, Assistant Vice-Principal and Dean of Arts & Divinity Professor Catherine O’Leary, who facilitated the conference, said, “In October 2006 leaders from Britain and Ireland met in St Andrews to sign an agreement which created a pathway to power-sharing and political stability in Northern Ireland. “It seemed fitting that 20 years on, the University, alongside Queen's University Belfast, University College Dublin, and the British Irish Chamber of Commerce, and supported by the Scottish Council in Global Affairs of which St Andrews is a founder member, would bring together many of those who played key roles in the negotiations and implementation of the Agreement alongside leading scholars and policy experts.”  “In addition to a day of roundtable talks between the politicians and policy makers, including the former Irish Taoiseach [Prime Minister] Bertie Ahern, the two-day conference also provided staff, students and members of the public to take part in discussions looking at the lessons learned not only for the island of Ireland, but also other global conflicts where the importance of dialogue, partnership and community engagement is crucial in sustaining peace and stability.” Professor O’Leary added that some students in the School of International Relations were invited to attend the event to document the conference and their reflections in a report. The second day of the conference involved four round-table panels open to policy-makers, students, and the broader public. These panels were on the topics of the Northern Irish power-sharing model, security and policing in Northern Ireland,  cooperation across the isles, and the St Andrews Agreement in an international context.  Image Courtesy of Nathalie Hanzlick-Meech